Nigerian female cyclists have soared above their rivals, Egypt and South Africa in the elite category on the current rankings of the International Cycling Union, UCI.
An elated president of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria, CFN, Giadomenico Masari who disclosed this during the federation’s end of year virtual meeting said the development is a sign that cycling is moving in the right direction in the country.
Out of the nine events scored, Nigeria placed ahead other African countries in five with Egypt and South Africa topping in three and one respectively.
Nigerian elite female cyclists rank top in Individual Sprint, Keiring, 500m Time Trials, Team Sprint and Team Pursuit events while Egypt lead in Omnium, Scratch and 3km Pursuit while South Africa are top in the Point Race.
Interestingly, Nigeria also progressed 12 steps on the world ranking in the Elite sprint from 32nd position in 2019 to 20 in 2022, from 33 in 2019 to 20 in 2022 in the Elite female Keiring event as well as jumped 19 steps in the Elite female 500m from 30 in 2019 to 11 in 2022.
The junior female cyclists were not that lucky like their elite counterparts as they led the rest of Africa in three and placed second in five out of the 10 events considered.
These are in the Sprint, Keiring and Time Trials where they also ranked well in the world, placing 8th, 9th and 10th respectively.
Meanwhile the country’s elite and junior men didn’t rank tops in any of the events. South Africa are the leaders in the elite men’s Sprint, Keiring and 1km Time Trials considered.
They also top in the junior category in Sprint, Team Pursuit and 1km Time Trials while Egypt are the leaders in the Team Sprint event.
The CFN president however, said more efforts are needed from the federation to continue to showcase the athletes in international championships where they could gather more points to continue to close the gap between them and the leading countries in cycling in the world.
